ASCA: The Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics

The Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics,
ASCA, is Japan's fourth cosmic X-ray astronomy mission, and the second for
which the United States is providing part of the scientific payload. The
satellite was successfully launched on February 20, 1993. ASCA operated
successfully till July 15 2000 when it was tranferred into a safe-hold mode.
The satellite re-entered on March 2 2001 after 7 and half years of
scientific observations. ASCA was the first satellite to use CCD detectors
for X-ray astronomy.

Mission Characteristics

Lifetime : February 20, 1993 - March 2, 2001
Energy Range : 0.4 - 10 keV
Special Features : First X-ray mission to combine
imaging capability with broad pass band, good spectral resolution, and a
large effective area
Payload :

Four X-ray telescopes each composed of 120 nested gold-coated
aluminum foil sufaces (total eff area 1,300 cm2 @ 1
keV, spatial resolution 3´ half power diameter, FOV 24´ @
1 keV) working in conjunction with one of the following detectors: